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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Tim, the Crocheted Scarf

You have no idea how excited I am about this particular pattern. It took me forever to make it work. Well, not really forever, closer to 2 weeks, but it was seriously frustrating. Writing out the pattern took longer. (Yes, I know I could have looked online for how other people have done similar things but I consider that cheating.) I persevered, however, and I've got a wicked scarf to show for it. It was well worth the fight.

I had a bit of help with this project, lol.

I mentioned in my Movie Madness post that I was going to start making items in tribute to some of my favorite Hollywood icons. This is one of those. I'm sure those of you familiar with the work of this person (or those of you who know how much I love it) have probably already figured out who it is from the picture of the scarf. Drawing from the twisted imagery that is so frequently present in his works and from his very signature play on contrasts I have designed this spiral-ish scarf in homage to Tim Burton; master of the macabre. He was a pretty obvious choice for my first go at people-themed stuff. I love his movies, especially the ones where he had a lot of control over the story. I mean, just look at Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Interestingly, they both include some manner of horror + Christmas. I've always found that amusing, plus the fact that they're also love stories. For someone who is known so well for the dark and twisty stuff it's almost surprising that the stuff he writes isn't dark and twisty deep down. But enough of the critical analysis. Let's get to the part you've been waiting for, the pattern!

Allow me to present, for your viewing and crafting pleasure, the Tim Scarf

Tim Scarf

Materials

Caron simply soft in black and in purple(about 1/2 a skein each), a small amount in blue

E hook- I used a small hook on purpose, it gave the best shape to the pattern without having to make huge pentagons. The fabric will be tight, again on purpose, so that the shaping and pattern are clearly visible.

Gauge- Each pentagon should measure 3 inches (7 1/2 cm) on a side, 3 1/2 inches (9cm) from a point to flat side across from it and about 4 inches (10 cm) from a point to either point across from it.

Note: PM= place marker, it's a notation more often seen in knitting patterns but you really need it here. Seriously. Don't try to make this thing without using markers, you will get lost when your attention drifts and your spirals will start to round out instead of being pentagonal. Always keep a marker in the ch 1 space, ALWAYS! After the markers are placed on the second round you just move them up each time you make a ch 1 space.

Spiral Pattern, make 9, 8, 1

Notes: Work the spirals in the round without turning the work. Color A should always be worked into Color B sts and vice versa. You're going to make 9 spirals with black as Color A and purple as Color B, 8 more spirals with purple as Color A and black as Color B, and 1 spiral with black as Color A and blue as Color B.

With A ch 2.
Work 2 hdc in the second chain from the hook, then pull the loop large (so the yarn can't escape) and drop the color.
Join B and work 3 hdc in the same sp as the 2 hdc in color A.

Round 1: With B work *hdc, ch1, PM, hdc* in the next 2 sts. Switch to A. Work * to* in the next 3 B hdcs.

Round 2: Continuing with B work *2hdc, (hdc, ch 1, hdc) in the ch 1* three times. Drop B, pick up A and work * to * twice

Round 3: Continuing with A work *4 hdc, (hdc, ch 1, hdc) in ch 1* three times. Drop A, pick up B and work * to * twice.

Round 4: Continuing with B work *6hdc, (hdc, ch 1, hdc) in the ch 1* three times. Drop B, pick up A and work * to * twice

Round 5: Continuing with A work *8 hdc, (hdc, ch 1, hdc) in ch 1* three times. Drop A, pick up B and work * to * twice.

Round 4: Continuing with B work *10hdc, (hdc, ch 1, hdc) in the ch 1* twice. Then work 10 hdc, (hdc, ch 1, sc) in ch 1, sl st twice, break off B leaving enough of a tail to sew with later. Pick up A and work * to * once. Then work 10 hdc, (hdc, ch 1, sc) in ch 1, sl st twice, break off A leaving a tail to sew with later.

Once you have all your spirals made start connecting them to each other. I stuck them in a sack and shook the pieces up and then pulled them out in a random order and sewed them together. The assembly layout is as follows.

Hold the first spiral with a point up, so it looks kinda like a house. The top point is point 1 and numbering for the other 4 points goes clockwise around the pentagon. For the assembly pattern you will sew the flat between points 3 and 4 on the first spiral to the flat between points 1 and 2 on the second spiral. The flat between points 1 and 5 on the third spiral is sewn to the flat between points 3 and 4 on the second spiral. From there keep repeating the pattern.

Assembly Layout

I've given you a picture of what the pattern looks like, because the description is kinda scary. You can even play around with the way they connect and do it like this (which happened when I wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing):

3 comments:

I absolutely looove this scarf! I happen to already have all the yarn for this (as well as nearly every other color of Simply Soft) so this is certainly going on my make list, after Christmas of course. Or I could kinda just do a spiral at a time, and hang on to them till I have time to do more.

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About Me

I am a crazy cat lady with a BS in microbiology and a chem minor. When I'm not working in the lab I knit, crochet, and play with my cats. At some point I would like to learn to spin and weave as well. I also love movies. I have an increasingly large collection that spans a number of decades including some silent films.